Category: Turkey Tracks: My Life in Maine

Our Life in Maine, My Craft Projects, Quilting, Recipes, Book and Media Reviews

Sewing Garments

Turkey Tracks: June1, 2022

Sewing Garments

So, I’ve had two knit garments cut out for two years—waiting for me to sew them.

It was now time, I decided. So I uncovered the serger and refreshed my memory on how to thread and use it.

I’ve made this dress a few times now—and along the way worked out altering the pattern to suit my body. It’s the ”Out and About Dress” by Sew Caroline.

I bought this more expensive fabric first, so I didn’t want to cut it until I made sure I had a good fit on the pattern.

And, due to the internal side pockets, I didn’t actually use the serger. I used a knit stitch on my Janome, and that worked fine.

The dress fits beautifully. I am so happy with it.

The other garment is the Chai T by Liesl & Company.

I cut the pattern out of extra knit leftover from another project.

The resulting garment was way too long. I want to wear the top outside, not tucked in.

And as is common for my body, the bust fits but there is too much fabric around the neckline as I have, apparently, a narrow shoulder width.

It was 51 degrees outside this morning, so I layered under the top. You can see the gaping neck line in front—and it is throwing off the fit in the shoulders too.

I was also fighting with my sewing machine until I realized I could put on the walking foot for the knit stitch as well as the straight stitch.

I chopped off the extra at the bottom and found a way to take out fabric around the neck (front and back) on the pattern that does not disturb the straight of grain (the front and back are cut out on folded straight of grain lines) and that does not overly impact the bust line.

There was some construction that was new to me—the yoke construction uses a ”burrito” folding method that makes the inside yoke seam on one side enclosed. But I hated the neckline attachment method and will not do it that way again. Instead I’ll do that burrito method for the yokes on both sides (if that is possible) and will install the neckline as I do all other knit top necklines—which makes the neck circle seam much less bulky and much less difficult to sew.

I did use the serger on the garment sides.

And I love the little cap sleeve.

Now I’ll buy a new yard of knit fabric and try it again.

Organic Roots Brings Home Blue Ribbons

Turkey Tracks: May 30, 2022

Organic Roots Brings Home Blue Ribbons

I love the Organic Roots Koroneiki olive oil—which is more robust than the other two choices.

I order the Koroneiki in the gallon size—and it usually takes me a year to go through a gallon as I mostly just use it for dressing my salads. However, I have tried it recently on roasted veggies, and it really shines there as well. I am cautious about heating olive oil with high heat though, as it fractures easily, which is not a good thing for the body as fracturing produces tiny, tiny shards. So I never sauté with olive oil, preferring the sturdier meat fats instead.

Covid stopped olive oil competitions in the past few years, so it is really nice to see how well Organic Roots is doing this year with resumed competitions.

Organic Roots is a family-owned organic oil producer in Northern California.

A Week Just Slipped By

Turkey Tracks: May 28, 2022

A Week Just Slipped By

…since I last posted.

It was a really busy week that included walks alone and with friends, some coffee visits here, and lots and lots of outdoor tasks, to include mowing yesterday to get ahead of the much-needed rain today.

Along the way I got the Churn Dash quilt on and off the longarm—and made and installed its cheerful red binding (also Cotton+Steel from my dwindling stash. This quilt is so cute! And I really like the secondary patterns that form.

Today’s rainy day will be spent sewing the two knit garments I have had cut out for TWO YEARS—a top and a dress. Then I’ll move the serger and set up the Bernina (my first real sewing machine bought in the late 1990s) so my 12-year old granddaughter who will be coming in late June can try it out. This granddaughter is SEWING.

Comforting Poems

Turkey Tracks: May 20, 2022

“Comforting Poems”

Thanks to all of you for so many lovely words of comfort and care.

I truly appreciate your kindness.

I’m still a bit of a mess. Of course I am. But, as I’ve said before, life can be quite messy some times.

The house seems so empty, but my heart is full.

Some of you have sent me some really nice poems, including the rainbow bridge poem.

So I will include them here as so many of you also carry a lot of grief, earned in just…living.

“Amore” Petunia is Fragrant

Turkey Tracks: May 16, 2022

“Amore” Petunia is Fragrant

On Saturday I made a quick trip to our local Home Depot for a dedicated cord for the leaf blower.

The back deck needs to be blown off and scrubbed. So I also got a stiff, rectangular ”push” broom to help with cleaning off the green ”stuff” that grows in the winter on the shadiest parts of that deck. Clorox is required for that job. And I thought that if we had a harder rain, I’d use the already wet deck to make this job easier.

With those items in the cart, on a whim I decided to see if there were any reasonable geraniums or petunias I could use—which could save me a trip to my favorite nursery, which is 30 minutes away. I saved my hanging basket from last year with the thought I could reuse it.

I walked by a big display of a pink and white-striped petunias called ”Amore,” which were planted in bigger pots.

Hello! Amore was incredibly FRAGRANT.

I LOVE fragrant petunias in a hanging basket.

Amore came home with me—and I planted it right away—and hung it on the upper porch where I like to have a hanging basket.

I saved about $20, and I can see it from where I sit at the dining room table. Win-Win.

So now I’m happy and the very hungry hummingbirds are happy as they like to have a hanging basket near their feeder It makes them feel safer I think.

I still need the geraniums though. And a few other plants as well.

Daffodils, White Violets, and Churn Dash Blocks

Turkey Tracks: May 14, 2022

Daffodils, White Violets, and Churn Dash Blocks

My daffodils have been awesome this year. And some are still blooming strongly. The cool of spring helps. We’ve had a few warm days (low 70s), but we have rain and cooler temps coming in, so maybe the daffs will hang out a bit longer.

The daffodils are the first of the garden plants to come inside each year. Here’s a bouquet on my dining table.

And a bouquet in the kitchen window—alongside some white violets that are blooming all over the place in the garden. Some of my daffs are so ”fluffy” they look like little peonies.

I finished the Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society Churn Dash blocks for this very, very scrappy but fun quilt top. I’ve started sewing the rows together. I like the secondary patterns that emerge when one buts up the blocks together. I can re-iron one set of seams (the sides) between blocks, but not another set (top to bottom)—which means I’ll have to snip and bend those seams to get them flatter. This is the 8th quilt from this winter project.

I have a small pile of fabrics that might be big enough for a pieced backing—and a cheerful red I can use for the binding.

This whole project has decimated the C+S stash, but has also produced a lot of cut blocks in various sizes that also need to be made into quilt tops.

It is the nature of quilting, and it is all good.

Until, it isn’t.

One can go crazy with using up all the tiny scraps. I’m doing a better job of setting reasonable boundaries of where the crazy vs. sane boundaries are. For me, anyway.

AC Slater and the Red Rubber Ball

Turkey Tracks: May 13, 2022

AC Slater and the Red Rubber Ball

More than just about anything, AC Slater loves to go to a field where he can chase his ball—which I throw with a Chuck-it thrower. His ball is red and made of rubber—so when it is thrown, it has the most satisfying bounces, which are made even greater and for longer throws when the ground is frozen or the grass has been mowed.

AC Slater also loves water—though he never gets away from the edge of a pond. He feels safe with his back feet firmly grounded. So, his ”swimming” takes the form of sloshing and wallowing.

He loves this little pond on a neighbor’s property. So, when he gets hot from chasing his ball, we go down to the pond so he can take a rest and cool off.

Right now, the big bull frog tadpoles are on the edge of the pond, and when he appears, they run into deeper water—which makes AC hunt for them. He can follow their initial movement, but does not seem to see them when they get into deeper water.

He runs the edges of the pond first, where he often causes the frogs that already exist on the edges to dive away from him.

The other day there were two other visitors to this field. As we talked, AC chased his ball off and on. When I was busy visiting, he took his ball down to the pond and, yes, put it in the water—where it quickly drifted away from the edge.

AC tried everything to get to the ball, including running around to the other side of the pond to see if he could get to it from there.

I thought he might be tempted to swim out to the ball.

But…no.

We eventually went home, leaving the ball in the middle of the pond.

The next day we went back—with me carrying a long crab net. I thought that maybe the wind had blown the ball to the edges of the pond somewhere where I might be able to reach it.

And while I walked the near side of the pond, AC ran to the other side to chase the big tadpoles. And when I walked over there, the red ball was at the edge of the water. He had already retrieved it from the edge and had dropped it on the ground right at the edge of the water.

So I scooped it up, and that was that!

It was the end to this episode of the red ball getting into water. There have been several such episodes—and to date, no permanently lost ball.

Local Peeps: Sewing Machine Repair

Turkey Tracks: May 11, 2022

Local Peeps: Sewing Machine Repair

I broke the needle threader on my Janome 8900 months ago. We won’t discuss what stupidity occurred to make that happen.

I lived without the threader until suddenly I had a tiny, tiny little loop on the bobbin side of my seams about every 20 stitches.

A quilty friend here told me she had taken her machine over to Mystic Maine Quilts, where the technician fixed it while she waited. MMQ is an authorized Janome dealer.

Hmmmm…

So I called last Friday—and was told I could bring the machine in Saturday morning by 10 am and wait with it if I liked.

Off I went Saturday morning.

Kevin McMurray is the technician—and he is awesome. In addition to his fixing the machine, we had a nice visit where I learned a lot about my machine.

Kevin had a whole box of Janome 8900 parts. He had a needle threader. He had a new bobbin case (mine was scarred, which probably happened when I broke the needle threader). He had the widget that sits on the rod where the bobbin is threaded.

He cleaned my machine. He rehooked a tiny, tiny spring that had come loose way down on the inside. AND with the repairs and the cleaning, the bill was under $100.

I came home with a machine that is now quieter and is running so smoothly.

MMQ is in Chelsea, Maine, which sits on route 9 between Augusta and Gardner. From Camden, I go out on 17, turn left on route 9 when 17 ends in a ”T,” and go about a mile or so to the shop, which is on the right.

Kevin works two days a week, and it is my understanding that you can make an appointment with him and wait while he fixes your machine.

He repairs all kinds of sewing machines.

***

5 River Road

Chelsea, Maine 04330

207-582-0312

Betsy’s “Love Letters” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: May 10, 2022

“Betsy’s ”Love Letters” Quilt

It’s another beautiful day here today.

And for me, it is cleaning/laundry day. But when that is done, AC doggie and I will definitely get out into the woods. And, there will be late afternoon sewing. There are only 10 more blocks to make for the Churn Dash quilt on the design wall.

When Betsy Maislen was here some weeks back, a journey made to pick up a used sewing machine she purchased from a quilty friend here. She spent a few days with me. And there was some sewing, of course, as she tried out her new machine and began to get familar with it.

While she was here, my Simply Moderne magazine, No 28, arrived.

The cover showed a quilt designed by Wendy Sheppard and Darlene Szabo, ”Love Letters.”

Betsy fell in love with this quilt.

When she went home, she made it—and pretty quickly too.

Here’s Betsy’s ”Love Letters” quilt.

Betsy did an AWESOME job.

The quilt is meant to be a gift, so someone is going to be happy.

She is still in love with her new-to-her sewing machine.

*You can order the pattern if you like it from Simply Moderne magazine.

https://www.quiltmania-inc.us/boutique/magazines/simply-moderne/simply-moderne-28/

A Productive Sunday

Turkey Tracks: May 9, 2022

A Productive Sunday

What a nice Mother’s Day I had yesterday.

Family all called in during the day, and we had such nice visits. I always treasure calls from my family.

I got out my little electric mower and did the first mow. Look how pretty the grass is now.

Deeply embedded in my person is a need to bring order to chaos, by using my hands. That certainly includes spring clean-up gardening. And it includes cutting and making quilt blocks, watching a quilt grow on the design wall, and continues on until the last stitch is sewn into the binding. Cooking and chopping veggies, working puzzles, household cleaning and laundry—for me that involves bringing order and banishing chaos. I could go on…

LOL. And today, trimming AC doggies nails, cleaning his teeth, and brushing him with the Furminator tool falls into this pattern. He’s now shedding his winter coat like crazy.

Look at this amazing patch of daffodils that has naturalized over the years from one bulb.

A late summer task is going to be digging up the daffodils that line the front walkway in order to divide them. They aren’t blooming as much as they used to this year. I’ll spread the extras around the garden—probably putting a lot of them into the bed at the front of the house—on the far side of the lawn where the hill drops down.

Meanwhile, the Churn Dash quilt is growing on the design wall. I’m getting there.

And I’m thinking that I can take the off-cuts from the 3-inch strips and make a VERY scrappy Bear Paws block that finishes at 16 inches square. Here’s my trial block—which I will take apart to spread out the color. I think it will work. The side sashings are a bit wider than the block sashings—so I’m not sure I’ll have enough of that cream Cotton+Steel Dottie fabric. No worries. I’ll just make the sashings scrappy. And, horrors, I may have to use some non C+S neutrals!!

All of which means that I am close to calling it a day on this huge project to use up the Cotton+Steel stash as much as makes sense—before I just put what’s left into the regular stash.

And, the projects from this year’s The Color Collective are calling to me.

Have a great week everyone!